Clemson Fans on Football Scheduling |
CLEMSON- It used to be easier to go to a Clemson football game.
Sure, Clemson isn't exactly the easiest place to find and traffic and parking have always been bad, but Tiger fans could almost always take one thing for granted: the 1:00 kickoff. Now, with a number of networks dictating college football schedules, kickoff times usually aren't announced until between six and 12 days before the game. As a result, fans have been forced to make their game-day plans on the fly and adapt to a growing number of early evening kickoffs. "I think that you can expect that. If you're going to be a winner or compete for the national championship and be in the upper echelon of your conference you've just got to expect that," said Summerville-native Mike Mahaffey. "The thing to do is to face the fact that this is a big business," says Rhyne Jones. "Money talks. You've got to do what you've got to do for the program." Not all Clemson fans are as receptive to the changes that come with TV scheduling. "With Clemson being located in one corner of the state it makes it awfully tough on people from the coast," said longtime Tiger fan John Hane. "They're not enough places in Clemson to spend the night and people might have made other plans and all of a sudden the game is jumped back, forward or whatever." Mill around the parking lots outside of Death Valley and one trend amongst the fans becomes quite clear: older people hate night games while younger folks love them. "I don't think you'll find anybody that likes to see them play at night, or at least anybody with gray in their hair or a lack of hair," said Columbia native Joe Mack Bates, a member of the gray-haired set. Eight year-old Derek Sox might have summed it up best, saying that "old people don't like it because they don't like to stay up late." Not surprisingly, Derek is a strong proponent of night games, but only because they allow him to stay up past his bedtime. Of course, with the Tigers sporting a 7-0 record and pushing into the national championship picture, the vast majority of Clemson fans could care less if the games kicked off at midnight. "We come from Columbia and it doesn't matter what time the game is, we're going to be here," said Frank Lever. "It's about Clemson football. As long as they play, I'm going to be here."
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